I remember Miss Bronte once telling me that it was a saying round about Haworth, "Keep a stone in thy pocket seven year; turn it, and keep it seven year longer, that it may be ever ready to thine hand when thine enemy draws near." The West Riding men are sleuth-hounds in pursuit of money.

Miss Bronte related to my husband a curious instance illustrative of this eager desire for riches.

A man that she knew, who was a small manufacturer, had engaged in many local speculations which had always turned out well, and thereby rendered him a person of some wealth.

He was rather past middle age, when he bethought him of insuring his life; and he had only just taken out his policy, when he fell ill of an acute disease which was certain to end fatally in a very few days.

The doctor, half-hesitatingly, revealed to him his hopeless state.